Laundering billions for the defense industry and arrests in Cyprus: as the creator of the Evita crypto platform, Yuri Gugnin became the main informant of the US Department of Justice

18 мая 2026 г.

Nadezhda Sorokina

The United States continues to promote an investigation into the Russian founder of the Evita crypto platform, Yuri Gugnin, who was detained last summer.

Gugnin (aka Yuri Mashukov, also known as George Gugnin) pleaded guilty to money laundering using his crypto companies Evita Investments and Evita Pay, violating US sanctions, illegal activities as a payment operator, fraud and other offenses.

As a result, he cooperated and less than a month and a half had passed since his business partner «Sergei BTR» was arrested in Cyprus. Obviously, he will also appear in an American court soon. This is definitely not the last arrest within the «Evita» scheme: Gugnin had dozens, if not hundreds of partners in Russia and abroad. Among them are representatives of the GRU and FSB, adviser Chemezov, etc.

Yuri Gugnin is a graduate of MSTU. Bauman. In the 2000s, he led web development at ADV, then was a managing partner at «RIC» Business School and the consulting company «Team-A». In Russia he had several companies, in particular, companies under the «Karma» brand, in which his business partner was Muscovite Sergei Bochkov. It is also known that another long-time business partner of Gugnin was Artem Laptev, an ex-employee of «Troika-Dialogue». The Karma platform, which they launched together in Russia, issued P2P loans and even had a license from the Central Bank. True, market participants directly called it a pyramid and predicted trouble for investors. The project quietly folded for several years until it was transferred to another owner - in 2024 it was relaunched under the name http://Investin.vc («Invest In» LLC). However, Gugnin retained the Estonian legal entity «Karma» - KARMA PEOPLE OÜ.

Gugnin finally moved to the United States in 2022. Before that, he announced on social networks a recruitment of talented programmers for his new project and reported that he had an investor: «We raised a round from a pleasant VC fund, in which a family-friendly atmosphere of mutual support reigns. This is even more of a venture builder/studio than just money». Judging by American registries, Gugnin is the sole founder of Evita Investments and Evita Pay, but in the latter the president is a certain Theodore Darenkov — obviously, this is Muscovite Fyodor Darenkov, an American of Russian origin, who moved to the United States at school age.

Over the course of a couple of years, Gugnin turned the American cryptocurrency company into a secret financial channel and transferred more than $530 million through the US financial system (and overall organized $2 billion in transactions), helping Russian sanctioned banks make payments. His business covered China, South Korea, India, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE and other countries. Gugnin received the money in USDT, then withdrew it and exchanged it for fiat dollars, credited it to his company’s accounts in a New York bank, and then paid for the goods and services Russian clients needed. At first he used the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex, but then it came under sanctions and Gugnin had to find a replacement.

American investigators were very grateful to the scrupulous Russian, who carefully kept his contacts in his iCloud account. Thus, there were data from GRU and FSB employees (including a scheme for laundering funds through China proposed by one of the FSB officers), as well as information about assistants to State Duma deputy, adviser Sergei Chemezov (Rostec), and a representative of the Iranian government. In addition, Gugnin contributed financial income and expenses to a separate document. For example, the address and email of a wealthy Muscovite remained there, for whom Gugnin purchased art objects worth $43.5 thousand at an American auction. For another Russian registered in the Stavropol region, he transferred 150 thousand euros to France for servicing the yacht.

The subjects of purchases were Western technologies, the import of which into the Russian Federation is prohibited, as well as luxury goods: optics, electronics, «smart» watches, paintings from auctions, dental equipment and implants, a server for a Russian developer of AI solutions, etc. It is known that some of the technologies went to the engineering divisions of Rosatom.

In addition, Gugnin managed to open a company in the UK, this happened six months before his arrest. At first the company was called EVITA INVESTMENTS INC LTD, and in March 2025 it was renamed ONE EVE INC LTD. For obvious reasons, Gugnin was unable to send the necessary documents to British officials this year, so now his company faces a fine and the threat of forced liquidation.

The cryptocurrency platform BlockFills, with which Yuri Gugnin’s American companies worked, was also under attack. Now the owner of this platform, Delavar-based Reliz Technology Group Holdings Inc. is going through bankruptcy proceedings, so it will obviously not be possible to return the money stuck on BlockFills to Gugnin. But the platform management will have to communicate with American law enforcement officers. The prospect of the same conversation hangs over other Gugnin counterparties, for example, the Dubai travel agency TRVL, which organizes entertainment cruises for representatives of the elite, and the French Ponant Explorations (owner of the Gucci and Saint Laurent brands Francois Pinault). Both were involved in last year’s scandal with the cancellation of a tour to the North Pole with auditioning the group «Leningrad» for 150 very wealthy Russians (the place cost from 70 thousand to 200 thousand dollars). Among the ship’s passengers were top managers of «Yandex» and Russian oil companies, restaurateurs, as well as a certain leading reality companyshow with 20 million subscribers.

The founders of TRVL — are Russians Boris and Evgeny Pustovoitov, they also own the Dubai car tuning company DEIZ. As it turned out, their Russian legal entity, LLC «This is da» (NEVEREND brand), through Gugnin’s company, transferred money for Ponant for renting the icebreaker Le Commandant Charcot. The Frenchman, characteristically, had no questions for the Russians. The Frenchman canceled the deal due to Gugnin’s arrest, but did not return $5.8 million out of a total amount of $8.5 million, so the Pustovoitovs are trying to return the money through the court and are demanding damages of $8.1 million.

Gugnin had dozens, if not hundreds, of counterparties, and not only in Russia. Having made a deal with the investigation, he automatically expressed his readiness to name their names. Any trip outside the Russian Federation and its friendly jurisdictions for these people could be the last — for Gugnin himself, for example, up to 30 years in prison. Admitting guilt and cooperation and he can reduce the sentence to 10 years.

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